


We're Heroes

by statictremors



Category: DCU (Comics)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-14
Updated: 2017-09-19
Packaged: 2018-12-29 19:42:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,580
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12092076
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/statictremors/pseuds/statictremors
Summary: Jessica finds a new friend in the Girl of Steel





	1. Chapter 1

She takes another deep breath. She wonders why people say this helps, because she’s been doing this for the last five minutes and she still feels like she’s about to break.

“You can do this, Jess.” She tells herself. “These people are your friends. Ok, so they’re also superheroes, but you are too. You’re Green Lantern. You have the ring and everything.”

The green ring on her finger glows as a voice is emitted from it. “Everything okay, J-Bird?”

No, everything is most certainly not ok. She’s Jessica Cruz, Green Lantern, and yet here she is again, feeling like the entire world is against her, and that it’s all closing around her, and she’s close to suffocating, and she can’t get out of it and –

“Hey.” It’s a new voice that speaks. Female. When Jessica turns to look at her, she briefly wonders if this is how she dies.

Long blonde hair. A red skirt and cape. Her suit is mostly blue. But it’s the big ‘S’ on her chest that really stands out. ‘Wait, not an S.’ Jess thinks. ‘It’s the symbol for hope or something.’ She shakes her head, that’s not what she needs to think about when Supergirl is staring at her. “I’m fine.” She says stubbornly. “Just…” How can she explain it?

“Don’t worry.” Supergirl says. “I get what it’s like to not want to say what’s wrong. And you don’t have to.” Cautiously, she sticks out her hand. “I’m Kara. Kara Danvers, or should it be Kara Zor-El right now?” She shakes her head, laughing what Jessica decides in that moment is the best laugh she’s ever heard and probably ever will hear. Kara looks back to her, a gentle smile on her face. “Supergirl. I’m Supergirl.”

“I knew that.” Jessica says nervously. How could she not? Supergirl’s one of the best superheroes ever. “I’m Jessica Cruz, Green Lantern. You can just call me Jess.” She takes Kara’s hand, shaking it with a small smile.

“Then you can just call me Kara.” The blonde says in return. She moves to stand next to Jess, and the Green Lantern can’t help but feel at ease. “If you want to tell me what’s wrong, you can. It’s ok. But if you don’t want to say anything, that’s ok.” Her words are gentle and soothing. She means every word.

“It’s just too much.” Jessica whispers. “It’s ridiculous, isn’t it? I can fight Darkseid or the Joker or the Sinestro Corps….and yet here I am, standing outside of a Justice League party because I’m scared.” She feels embarrassed as she looks at her ring. How could it choose someone who can get crippled so easily?

“It gets too much for me sometimes too.” Kara says, and Jess turns to look at her in surprise. Surely the Girl of Steel doesn’t get scared like she does? “I lost my planet. My family, my friends. Everything. Everything gone in a flash. Kal-El is the last family I have, and he’s the closest I can get to Krypton. I have a family here now, with the Danvers. And they’re great…but sometimes I just want to be on Krypton again. And when that happens, I need to be by myself.”

Silence passes for a minute, and then Jessica begins to speak again. “I saw my friends murdered. Right in front of me. And I barely got out alive. I stayed in my apartment for over a year, too terrified to come out. And now I’ve got this ring and I can’t work out why it chose me. I’m not a hero. I’m Jessica Cruz, the Anxiety Lantern.”

Kara pauses, as if she’s trying to find the right words to say. She takes Jess’s hand again, giving it a gentle and reassuring squeeze. “Actually, I think you might be the greatest hero of us all.” She says with a smile. “You’re terrified, but you still try to be a Superhero. You still try and save people, you still try to do the right thing. You put the lives of innocent people before yourself. Jess….that’s the definition of a hero.”

Jessica blushes, but she feels warm inside. Someone believes in her. And it won’t make her anxiety go away, because it’s not that easy, but it helps. Even if just a little. She lets out a dry laugh. “God, I miss the days when it was just me and my Pokémon.”

At that, Kara’s eyes light up, a wide grin appearing as she looks to Jessica. “You play Pokémon too?” She asks, looking like she wants to jump up and down with excitement. “Do you have Pokémon Go?”

Jessica smiles widely as she pulled out her phone, opening the app up to show it to the blonde. “Yeah, I do! My place sucks though, there’s barely ever anything interesting around.” She frowns as she looks at her collection. It’s almost feeble.

Kara laughs loudly, and Jess jumps a little as she turns to her. “Oh, come on, Jess. We’re heroes. We can fly all around the world. We can catch whatever Pokémon we want!”

Jessica looks at her incredulously. “Isn’t that abusing our power or something? Personal gain and all that stuff?” But Kara’s jumping up and down excitedly, and she really can’t resist that smile. Soon enough, they’re flying away, off to Spain to see what lies there.

/////////////////////////////////////////////

‘So, this is what it’s like to be in trouble with Batman.’ Jessica notes as she watches Bruce Wayne pace back and forth in the Batcave. Her and Kara are sitting down, having been called there by the Dark Knight himself.

“What in the world were you thinking?” Bruce asks after a moment, and the rage can be heard in his voice, even if it is subtle. “You’ve had people worried with how you’ve been flying all over for the past two weeks, and when I finally ask if there’s trouble, you tell me you were catching Pokémon?”

Kara speaks for them. “C’mon, Bruce, you don’t get it, some of these Pokémon are really hard to catch!” She gives that beautiful smile again, and Jess wonders how her friend can be such an utter dork.

Bruce opens his mouth to yell at them, but he seems to realise halfway through that there’s no point. He places his face in his hand, and waves them away. “Just go.” He says as a sigh.

Kara nods, and then beckons to Jessica that they can leave. The Green Lantern follows Supergirl, and together they fly back to Jessica’s apartment, landing gracefully and laughing as they take in what happened.

Tears of laughter come to Jessica’s eyes as she speaks. “I can’t believe I just got yelled at by Batman for playing Pokémon Go!”

Kara laughs too, clutching her chest as she practically doubles over. “He didn’t even know what to say! I think we finally confused the Dark Knight!” Once they’ve calmed again, she smiles at her friend. “So, same time tomorrow then? I’m thinking we head to Italy this time. It’s really pretty, you know.” 

Jess nods, but goes to the balcony as her friend moves to fly away. “Hey.” She says, and although she’s nervous when Kara looks at her, she does her best to continue. “Maybe afterwards, we can go for dinner? In Italy, I mean. Like you said, it’s really pretty.”

Kara pauses before she speaks softly. “Like a date?”

“Not like a date.” Jessica says, shaking her head. “A date. I know we’ve only really been friends for two weeks but you’re so fun to talk to and so pretty and Italy is romantic too and…” She rambles on for another minute before she feels them. Soft lips on her own. The kiss only lasts a few seconds, but it felt like an eternity to her. When it breaks, she almost wants to chase Kara’s lips, and she opens her eyes to see Kara smiling widely back at her.

“I’d love to.” Kara whispers. She flies off before Jess can say anything else, not that she could muster any words right now. She touches her lips….she can still feel Kara’s lips. It might just be the best feeling in the world. She smiled softly as she turns around to head back into her apartment.

Maybe she isn’t half bad at this whole superhero thing, after all.


	2. Home

_Two weeks_

She’s still on cloud nine.

She feels so happy. Kara makes her happy. And when she’s feeling her worst, Kara is there. The blonde is patient, soothingly reassuring her. Jesssica never feels rushes by her girlfriend, and it means more to her than words can possibly describe. She has someone who doesn’t expect her to just get over her anxiety. Who gives her space when needed, and who is just….there.

Kara doesn’t need them to go out to fancy restaurants. She’s fine if Jessica just wants to stay in her apartment and watch some cheesy film on Netflix. And she’s fine if Jessica wants to see how quickly they can fly to the moon when they _really_  try.

Kara’s the last thought on Jess’s mind as she drifts off to sleep, and the first thought when she wakes up. She loves it when they fall asleep on the couch, just holding each other. It feels right. It feels like home.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _One month_ The media has caught on to the fact that Supergirl and Green Lantern are dating by now. She’s not entirely sure, though Bruce says it’s obvious with the glances they steal during battle. But who can blame them? Jessica and Kara just want to be sure the person they care about the most is still ok, because as powerful as they are, they’re not invincible.

Jessica didn’t like the press before, and it gets even worse now. It feels like every time she tries to calm the public after another mission, there’s a camera shoved in her face as a million questions are asked about her love life.

Luckily, Kara doesn’t let that slide. She moved them away, and one time she even yells at one of the reporters for upsetting her girlfriend. Jessica is amazed that even when she’s yelling in anger, Kara is still the most beautiful person she’s ever seen.

Kara has a toothbrush over at Jessica’s apartment now. It’s not much, but it still means something. It means to Kara, Jess’s home is something special to her. It’s where she can come to see her girlfriend. It’s where they can snuggle up on the couch and share ice cream.

To Kara, Jess’s apartment feels like some sort of utopia.

To Kara, Jess’s apartment feels like somewhere where she can escape all the troubles and just for be herself.

To Kara, Jess’s apartment feels like home.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_Three months_

Parallax is back, and he’s stronger than ever. He sends Earth into disarray as everyone sees their worst fears. The Justice League struggles to fight him. Because everyone has fears. When Jessica sees Batman, it’s like he’s shrunk back to the cared little boy whose parents were gunned down in an alleyway. She hears Kara’s screams, and Jessica knows her girlfriend is seeing Krypton being destroyed again. She’s held her through those nightmares before, and she tries so hard to get to her. But then she feels a suffocating terror surround her, and she knows it’s her turn now, and she wonders how she can possibly survive this.

Parallax uses Kara against her, and it feels worse than she could possibly imagine, because he uses the scenarios Jess herself has imagined. Kara dying as Jessica is unable to save her. Kara leaving her because she can’t handle Jessica’s problems. Kara calling her weak because despite all she’s faces, there’s still times when she just collapses in fear.

But no, she tells herself. Kara doesn’t think that. Kara told her she was a hero months ago, when they first met. Kara believes in her. And Jessica knows Kara.

_Jessica loves Kara._

She opens her eyes, and this time the terror has disappeared. She doesn’t know what’s gotten into her, but she’s not going to question it. She’s not going to die today. No one is going to die today.

“I am not my thoughts.” She says as she stares down fear personified. “I am not my fears.” She says as she raises her arm, her ring glowing with such tremendous power that she feels like it’s about to burst.

“I defy fear.” She shoots it from her ring a moment later. A ball, white and red, launches forward at Parallax and opens. The demonic being lets out a scream, but Jessica doesn’t back down. She keeps it up, and watches as the ball opens and then closes around Parallax. When it comes back to her, she can fit it into the palm of her hand. She can feel the fear disappearing as Parallax’s terror ends. She sees her fellow League members walk to her, and she hands the sphere to Hal. He’ll know best what to do with it.

“JESSICA!” She hears, and a moment later she’s trapped in a powerful hug as Kara wraps her arms around her. The blonde pulls back to say something, but Jessica doesn’t give her a chance as she captures Kara’s lips in a powerful kiss. The world disappears around them again as Kara returns the kiss, and they’re only broken apart when the need to breathe again suddenly becomes an issue. "I saw you die." She hears the blonde whisper, and she holds her close for a few minutes as she lets her girlfriend know that she's ok. That they're both ok.

Once the fear has fully settled, Kara begins to giggle, and Jessica is about to ask why but Supergirl cuts her off this time as she speaks. “Did you really just use a Pokeball to capture Parallax?”

Jessica laughs now as a small blush comes to her. “It was the first thing I thought of.” She mumbles. She takes a steady breath as she looks to her girlfriend. Today was more proof than ever that they could lose each other at any moment, and she doesn’t want to waste a single second.

“I love you.”

It feels so right to say, partly because she thinks she’s wanted to say it since that first night. And she sees Kara’s eyes water as that beautiful smile comes again. “I love you too.”

She feels the woman she loves take her hand, and she squeezes it back as she finds the ability to speak despite all the emotion flowing through her.

“Let’s go home.”

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_Six months_

Moving in day.

Well, it’s not moving in day for Jessica.

She still is living in her apartment.

 _‘Our apartment.’_ She corrects herself as Kara unpacks the last of her boxes. The blonde comes over and gives her a soft kiss. Jessica smiles into it, and of course they tell each other they love each other when the kiss breaks. Because they say it every chance they get.

As Kara gets into bed with her and wraps her arms around her, Jessica can’t help but smile.

For so long, she wondered if she would ever find happiness, and she’s finally done it.

She’s with the love of her life, and she’s going to be with the love of her life forever.

After all this time, she’s found love.

She’s found happiness.

She’s found home.


End file.
